It’s a make-or-break 2026 for these three Cincinnati Reds

There’s a presumption that this offseason is far from finished for the Cincinnati Reds. Though they were rendered second fiddle (at best) in their pusuit of slugger Kyle Schwarber and have so far not managed to land any other impact bats via trade, their seemingly genuine efforts to acquire some legitimate bats shows they know just how ugly it was to watch what we all watched from the offense in 2025.

The bullpen needs plenty of work, too, even after the club managed to coax Emilio Pagan into re-signing earlier in December. And with a budget and payroll that’s already mostly tapped out, that means Nick Krall and the front office are going to have to get creative with how they seek these improvements, a scenario that almost always ends up with one or two (or three) final roster spots being doled out to players who, on paper, are more need to prove it guys than are established and known quantities.

Those guys are the gambles, if you will. The bets on upside an hope, talent and ceiling, players who you’ve seen glimpses of in recent seasons that get one more chance to show that this time, this year, they’re at a point in their careers where they can take the next step.

And if they don’t this time? Well, the chances were certainly there.

Here are three particular Cincinnati Reds who will be fighting to get that one last chance to shine in 2025, assuming they even get that chance.

Rece Hinds (25) – OF

Hinds, the club’s 2nd round pick back in 2019, only turned 25 in September of 2025, and is a known quantity because of the completely absurd first 6 games of his big league career turned in back in July of 2024.

He went 11 for 22 with 3 doubles, a triple, 5 dingers, 11 RBI, and a pair of steals in those 6 games, earned NL Player of the Week honors, and showed the world just how electric he can be when his power, speed, and eye at the plate are all tuned in perfectly. Of course, the crash was immediate after that week, and he even slumped to a miserable .658 OPS in his time with AAA Louisville in 2024, never truly turning the page back after his demotion.

He struck out 160 times in just 422 PA with the Bats in 2024. In 2025, though, he cut that down to just 113 in 436 PA, and with the stark cut down in K-rate came with a power surge (.563 slugging, 26 doubles, 24 homers). He swiped 21 bags – a single-season career best for him – and even turned in 51 starts as a CF with AAA Louisville, the first such time he’s played the position. He even turned on RHP with incredible aplomb (.914 OPS, 22 of his 26 overall dingers across all levels), showing that he may not just be a guy primed to be the short-side of a platoon going forward.

Hinds has often had up and down swings to his career, great one year and subpar the next, and the hope is that the trend there doesn’t continue and that his 2025 was him maturing into the kind of elite power hitter he truly could be. Given his arm, range, and power potential, that’s a pretty ideal 4th/5th outfielder if he’s truly turned that corner, the only question now being whether riding bench more often than not to begin 2026 is truly what’s best for him and the Reds.

He’s gone one option remaining, however, giving the Reds a little bit more time to evaluate him.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand (26) – 1B/3B/DH

If you aren’t the kind of person who keeps intricate track of just how long the Cincinnati Reds have been in their perpetual rebuild, well, walking back through the highs and lows of the CES era will give you a refresher.

CES was acquired alongside Spencer Steer and Steve Hajjar in the deal that sent Tyler Mahle to the Minnesota Twins in August of 2022. Steer actually made his big league debut for the Reds shortly after said trade, and 2026 will now mark his 5th season with the club. Fifth!

CES didn’t debut until later in 2023, but when he did, he did so with the kind of power that made folks drool, hitting .270/.328/.477 with 13 homers in just 63 games in the very same season that Joey Votto played his final games for the Reds. It sure seemed as if the heir apparent was already around, and that’s how the club approached 2024.

Then came the hairline fracture in his wrist, the misdiagnosis (or whatever lack of oversight there was that prolonged the problem), and the beginning of long-layoffs and recovery time doing everything it could to sap him of regular playing time. His big league numbers tanked in limited action, and his numbers at AAA have yet to return to the heights they found during his 2023 breakout.

Now, he’s 26. His skillset on the roster – iffy defense limited pretty much to 1B, high Ks, big power – are pretty much exactly what the Reds sought in Schwarber, meaning that’s the expectation gap between the two. And as ‘bench bats with pop who hit right-handed’ go, well, I think I laid out the case for Hinds to get that honor before CES at this point already.

Lyon Richardson (26 in January) – RHP

It’s a barrage of former 2nd round picks, as Richardson represents Cincinnati’s pick from Round 2 back in 2018. Since then, he’s gone from flamethrower to a guy who lost serious velocity, a guy who’s overcome Tommy John surgery and a move to the bullpen and, at times, looked pretty electric in doing so.

He was humming along like a future cog of the Reds bullpen in 2025, firing 24.1 IP of 1.85 ERA ball with a 20/8 K/BB in his first 20 G. He’d yielded just a lone homer, was commanding the zone, and even exuding the kind of confidence on the mound you need to have as a reliever climbing the leverage chart. Things hit the skids beginning in his very next appearance, however, and from that point forward he allowed 17 runs (14 earned) in his final 13.1 IP with an ugly 10/13 K/BB in that span.

His stuff can be pure filth, a well-balanced combination of 96 mph heater, 95 mph sinker, and a change that’s almost 10 full mph slower than his four-seamer on average. He’s flirted with a slider before – though he mostly abandoned it in 2025 – and clearly has the chops to continue to work it into his approach.

The Reds have clear voids in their bullpen after the departures of Scott Barlow, Brent Suter, and Ian Gibaut. If Richardson can show even a glimpse of consistency with that kind of stuff, he could very well be a central piece of the 2026 ‘pen (and of it going forward), doing so at a still league-minimum rate for a team that’s on a shoestring budget. He’s out of options, too, meaning that the Reds won’t have the ability to simply ship him back to Louisville to figure things out in 2026 – he’s going to have to simply harness it from the start this time around.